2004 Mr. Olympia Finals & Prejudging (DVD) - KING RONNIE crowned by the Governator! Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger walked onto the Olympia stage holding the Sandow trophy and presented it to Ronnie Coleman for tying his record. Both men stand only one victory away from all-time leader Lee Haney. BUY IT NOW

The Ronnie sightings began a few days ago in Las Vegas. A competition-ready
bodybuilder over 300 lbs is always noticed, even in Vegas. Last year, Ronnie
Coleman won his sixth consecutive Mr. Olympia at a phenomenal bodyweight of
287 lbs in what was arguably the best conditioning of his career. As most
bodybuilders who have trained seriously and consistently over five years
realize, a 10 lb increase in lean body mass in a year's time is amazing. For
a 40 year-old, elite bodybuilder with almost 20 years of training under his
belt to make such gains is nothing short of miraculous. And when he stepped
on stage tonight at the Mandalay Bay for the 2004 Mr. Olympia at a
bodyweight of 296 lbs, it was indeed "game over, lights out"!

1. Ronnie Coleman - Ronnie did not disappoint. He learned his lesson from
the 2002 Olympia where he failed to make an improvement year-over-year and
was seriously challenged by Jay Cutler and Gunter Schlierkamp. And for the
past two Olympias, he has made dramatic improvements at each outing. While
he may have held a little water in the midsection (more evident in the
prejudging than the night time show), his overall improvement in size made
him unbeatable. With all due respect to one of my favorite bodybuilders,
Dorian Yates, Ronnie's back development is the best in the history of
bodybuilding, past, present, and in the foreseeable future. His legs are
massive. The only thing more impressive than the appearance of his legs on
stage is the hardcore training that goes into building those tree trunks!
We've seen his squat workouts and his deadlift workouts in Cost of
Redemption and the Unbelievable; I believe Ronnie's videos are the single
biggest reason we are seeing more lifters in the gym adding deadlifts and
squats to their regular workouts. His confidence and light-hearted humor
made the show much more enjoyable. (E.g. "Jay's been smoking crack this
morning", "lights out, game over, lat spread", "nothing but a peanut!")

2. Jay Cutler - Ronnie wasn't the only one to make dramatic improvements in
size. Jay desperately wants a Sandow and has obviously put considerable
effort into improving his physique and the results showed. There appeared to
be a slight film of water covering his back; I don't think this would have
made a difference since Ronnie is from another planet when it comes to back
development. Jay stated that he felt Ronnie was "beatable." I'm not sure
many in the audience agreed. But Jay showed his fierce determination to
become Mr. Olympia, if not now, then when Ronnie retires. Maybe Jay was a
little too serious. I hope his seriousness does not eat away at the passion
he has shown for the sport.

3. Gustavo Badell - Gus is clearly the surprise bodybuilder of 2004. He has
made the greatest improvements in his phyisque of any competitor on stage
last night. I must admit, Gus caught me by surprise. After all, he placed
24th at the 2002 Mr. Olympia. But since Milos Sarcev has become involved in
helping Gustavo, he is now a contender. Amazing. I look forward to watching
him compete next year and the years to come.

4. Dexter Jackson - Dexter is a future Mr. Olympia. The conditioning of "the
Blade" is unparalleled. At every show (and he competes several times per
year), he is always "on" - check out the video clip of him at the Arnold.
And every year that Dexter has competed in the pro ranks, he has continued
to add size. It is only a matter of time before he reaches that perfect
combination of size and conditioning. The conditioning is there. And don't
get me wrong, the size is there as well. But as long as mass monsters such
as Ronnie, Jay and Markus roam the earth, the burden is on Dexter to get
bigger. If we had two categories in bodybuilding competition: "Freaky Mass"
and "Perfect Symmetry", Dexter would win ever year closely followed by the
likes of Darrem Charles. This year Dexter's placing was seriously hurt by
the addition of the new round - the "Challenge Round". Dexter lost a "most
muscular" challenge to Gustavo and a controversial "ab-and-thigh" challenge
to Ronnie. The Challenge Round may add another dimension to the contest with
more excitement and entertainment but in no way does it make the judging any
fairer. There will be a lot of debate regarding the future of the Challenge
Round.

5. Markus Ruhl - Markus has one of the most massive, impressive physiques in
bodybuilding today. The word "freak" has never been more appropriate to
describe a bodybuilder nor has it ever been said in such a complimentary
manner. Always known as nice, personable person to his fans, he showed the
audience last night that he has quite an eye for assessing the strengths and
weakness of his competitors physique during the "Challenge Round". Many
thought Markus should have won more of the callouts he made, this observer
included, and yes, possibly even the callouts against Jay and Ronnie. He
should have placed higher. But there is some justice in the sport - thanks
go out to Muscular Development magazine for recognizing Markus "freak
status" by giving him the "2004 Freakazoid Award" accompanied by a $10,000
cash prize. Markus' recent DVD has helped increase his popularity. And his
condition at the 2004 Olympia along with the "Freakazoid Award" will provide
a perfect script for the sequel to "Made in Germany".

6. Gunter Schlierkamp - Gunter is a favorite in bodybuilding. After his 2002
conditioning, we all are in Gunter's corner, but until he can fulfill the
potential he showed he 2002, he will not move up in the rankings. However,
Gunter was right on with his criticism of the official 2004 Olympia poster.
The poster featured a posedown between Ronnie and Jay; Gunter pointed that
there were 19 competitors. The contest was between Ronnie and the rest of
the field!

7. Chris Cormier - Chris looked great as usual. But on a stage where most of
the top 10 competitors made considerable improvments over the past 12
months, the judges seemingly penalized Chris for not making comparable
improvements.

8. Dennis James - Finally, Dennis James showed what he is capable of at the
2004 Olympia. In past years, he has always showed amazing potential in the
off-season only to miss with his contest prep for the Olympia. He should
have placed much higher. Still, DJ is much more impressive in the off-season
and in his training videos.

PREJUDGING: See it all, just as the live audience did at Mandalay Bay . The eight compulsory poses by all 19 Mr. Olympia competitors, the symmetry round, and the exciting muscularity round compulsory poses to determine the placings going into the evening finals. A must-see for every true bodybuilding fan, you can actually judge at home with the clarity and richness of these incredible images, digitally recorded for high-definition broadcast standards and then edited into VHS or DVD for standard televisions.

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